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Behavioural Issues in Strategy Implementation

It is vital to bear in mind that organizational change is not an intellectual process concerned with
the design of ever-more-complex and elegant organization structures. It is to do with the human
side of enterprise and is essentially about changing people’s attitudes, feelings and – above all
else – their behavior. The behavioral of the employees affect the success of the
organization. Strategic implementation requires support, discipline, motivation and hard work
from all manager and employees.

Influence Tactics: The organizational leaders have to successfully implement the strategies and
achieve the objectives. Therefore the leader has to change the behavior of superiors, peers or
subordinates. For this they must develop and communicate the vision of the future and motivate
organizational members to move into that direction.

Power: it is the potential ability to influence the behavior of others. Leaders often use
their power to influence others and implement strategy. Formal authority that comes through
leaders position in the organization (He cannot use the power to influence customers and
government officials) the leaders have to exercise something more than that of the formal
authority (Expertise, charisma, reward power, information power, legitimate power, coercive
power).

Empowerment as a way of Influencing Behavior: The top executives have to empower lower
level employees. Training, self managed work groups eliminating whole levels of management
in organization and aggressive use of automation are some of the ways to empower people at
various places.

Political Implications of Power: Organization politics is defined as those set of activities


engaged in by people in order to acquire, enhance and employ power and other resources to
achieve preferred outcomes in organizational setting characterized by uncertainties.
Organization must try to manage political behavior while implementing strategies. They should;

 Define job duties clearly.


 Design job properly.
 Demonstrate proper behaviors.

 Promote understanding.

 Allocate resources judiciously.

Leadership Style and Culture Change: Culture is the set of values, beliefs, behaviors that help
its members understand what the organization stands for, how it does things and what it
considers important. Firms culture must be appropriate and support their firm. The culture should
have some value in it . To change the corporate culture involves persuading people to abandon
many of their existing beliefs and values, and the behaviors that stem from them, and to adopt
new ones. The first difficulty that arises in practice is to identify the principal characteristics of
the existing culture.

Cultural Issues in Strategy Implementation

Organizational culture includes the shared beliefs, norms and values within an organization. It
sets the foundation for strategy. For a strategy within an organization to develop and be
implemented successfully, it must fully align with the organizational culture. Thus, initiatives
and goals must be established within an organization to support and establish an organizational
culture that embraces the organization’s strategy over time

Flexibility and Adaptability


Organizations that remain flexible are more likely to embrace change and create an environment
that remains open to production and communication. This provides a model that welcomes
cultural diversity and helps clarify strategy implementation. Culture within an organization can
serve many purposes, including to unify members within an organization and help create a set of
common norms or rules within an organization that employees follow.

Characteristics of Stability
A stable culture, one that will systematically support strategy implementation, is one that fosters
a culture of partnership, unity, teamwork and cooperation among employees. This type of
corporate culture will enhance commitment among employees and focus on productivity within
the organization rather than resistance to rules and regulations or external factors that prohibit
success.

Cultural Alignment
When culture aligns with strategy implementation, an organization is able to more efficiently
operate in the global marketplace. Culture allows organizational leaders to work both
individually and as teams to develop strategic initiatives within the organization. These may
include building new partnerships and re-establishing old ones to continue delivering the best
possible products and services to a global market

Structural Issues in Strategy Implementation

Organizational structures determine what actions are feasible and most optimal. The importance
of organizational structures in the implementation of a strategy is hard to overemphasize. Good
strategy involves taking account of where a company finds itself in terms of the external market
and its internal organizational structure. Strategy and implementation must cohere.

Centralization

Some organizations have a more centralized structure already in place before a strategy has been
implemented. When this is the case, it makes implementing certain strategies more feasible.
Change is always difficult to implement as a part of strategy; the fewer people involved in
decision-making, the easier it is to gain consensus. More dramatic strategies are aided by a
centralized organizational structure. Dramatic strategies can mean changing the basic ways an
organization does business.

Innate Advantages

The best strategies often seek to take advantage of the innate advantages that an organization
already possesses. Most organizations have certain departments that are particularly effective and
certain tasks that it is already adept at doing. Strategies of this sort seek to rearrange
organizational structures so as to better benefit from innate advantages. These strategies involve
taking steps such as expanding parts of the organization that are successful and shrinking those
that are not.
Consensus

Organizational structures are often important in gaining consensus for a strategy. If all the parts
of an organization aren't onboard with a given strategy, it will stand less of a chance of
succeeding. The structure of an organization will have much to do with gaining consensus
because it will determine who has to be appeased in management and how power is aligned.
Different personal interests will often conflict and need to be addressed.

Challenges to Strategic Management

Strategic management includes strategic planning, implementation and review/control of the


strategy of an organization. All most all the modern organizations engage in strategic
management to ensure that they achieve the desired level of performance. But in the modern
business context strategic management faces many challenges such as:

 Orientation for globalization-


Every aspect of the business is getting globalised and business organizations step in to global
operations with MNC and other foreign business operations methods. Due to the globlised
operations of the business world there are new orientations such as international human resource
management (IHRM) and international finance are emerging. Company’s strategic management
process has to be updated to cope up with these new orientations.
 Emerging e-commerce and internet culture-
With the wide expansion of world wide wed (www) and the technology businesses have moved
on to e-commerce where they conduct business electronic means such as online
purchasing/selling and online advertising. Strategic management process of the business should
be able to accommodate e-commerce motives into the business process.

 Cut throat competition-


With the globalization, e-commerce and other changes in the business environment, todays
business world has become hyper competitive where the organization can no longer survive
without executing proper competitive strategy. Strategic management process should generate
competitive intelligence and predict the next moves of the competitors and build
the competitive strategy to win the battle with competitors.
 Diversification-
With the rapid changing business environment and increased uncertainty the business risk
has increased drastically. To diversify the business risk companies now engage in diversified
operations where they focus on more than one business area/industry rather than specializing in
one area. The strategic management should be able to identify diversified business opportunities
and manage them well.

 Active pressure groups-


In the modern world there are active pressure groups operating such as environmental activism
and consumer protectionism. Strategic management should identify these external pressure
groups and hear about their concerns.

 Motive for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ethics-


The modern business organizations have engage in CSR and ethics to keep up their
corporate reputation and be competitive in the environment. Strategic management should look
into possible CSR activities and implement those to be in line with expectations of the society.

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